On this day in 1899, a congressional act authorized the formation of the Thirty-Third Infantry Regiment, better known as the "Texas Regiment," one of the most famous American combat units of the...(Read More)

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DIAMOND, WILLIAM WINFIELD

DIAMOND, WILLIAM WINFIELD (1831–1867). William Winfield Diamond, Confederate Army officer, was born on September 6, 1831, in De Kalb County, Georgia, to James Diamond and Nancy (Cornwell) Diamond. In 1850 he married Elizabeth Towles, and the couple produced four children. By 1860 he was a lawyer in Grayson County, Texas. He came from a politically active family and, with his brother James Jackson Diamond, signed the Texas Ordinance of Secession in February 1861. He enlisted as a private in Company C of the Sixteenth Texas Cavalry on February 22, 1862. The unit was composed of nearly a thousand men from Gainesville, Brenham, Farmersville, and McKinney. He was promoted to major on March 10, 1862, and then to lieutenant colonel on April 16, 1862. The unit was dismounted in early 1863 and experienced heavy losses at the battles of Milliken's Bend and Jenkin's Ferry in Louisiana. Diamond was wounded in the thigh at the battle of Milliken's Bend. The Sixteenth Texas Cavalry fought for the Trans-Mississippi army until the unit disbanded in May of 1865.

Citation

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Stephanie Piefer Niemeyer and Brett Derbes,
"DIAMOND, WILLIAM WINFIELD," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fdi50), accessed March 03, 2015. Uploaded on March 31, 2011. Modified on April 5, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.